Where There is Beauty, Nature Also Can Bring Tragedy~

This will be the second entry following our recent 6,344 mile journey to the Pacific Northwest and back.  
It has taken too much of my time to edit, and then decide which of the over 2,000 images to use.  
Yesterday I posted 14 drafts and if I only post one a week, we will still be looking at my journey images 3 months from now.  
I have decided to post 2 drafts every week and maybe even 3, and I will also be connecting each of them to Mosaic Monday and Wild Bird Wednesday and it is my hope that you will come and join me on this ride. 
There is a warning at the bottom of this page as when we were traveling, we met with a sight that I hated to share, yet it was part of the story.  
I only share a single mosaic, but also give meaning to it, as best that I can!

*Please take a few extra minutes to visit both posts published and shared on the following memes, as I would love to share this whole journey with you, and I have packed a whole lot in to each post.  
Thank you very much~

Remember to double click on the image, to view a larger slide show of the images shared

 

I am linking up with Mary for:
"Mosaic Monday"

at: 

 http://dearlittleredhouse.blogspot.

and

I am linking up with Stewart at:

   Wild Bird Wednesday
        (http://paying-ready-attention-gallery.blogspot.com.au/)

In the field above and a few others scattered in this post, we counted 11 Swainson's Hawks, all hunting and even one bathing in a puddle. 
The area was 10 miles East of the Badlands National Park entrance at mile marker 128 in South Dakota.
There was much moisture following a very recent snow melt~
The Raptor below...I believe it to be a juvenile Western Red-Shouldered Hawk, but my ID may be off.  This was the only image that I was about to get~

 

 

While these are not very clear, the rising sun turns a Great Blue Heron bronze in the morning light~

 Spent Sunflower fields were everywhere and I enjoyed the textures they gave along the route~

I enjoy seeing these rounded bales, since we don't have them much here.  
After taking these images, I noticed, I got some Pheasants too.  
That made me happy!

While stopping for a light meal one afternoon, I heard people saying that the hunters were not having such luck on their Pheasant hunt...ah, but I know where they were and I am not telling ;)

Horses out on the ranches, always a beautiful sight~

As I have said before, most of my images shared are taken from a fast moving car.  
The Western Red-tailed Hawk below, caught my eye from the light feathering on it's front.  
I do not miss seeing many of them, but they are sure hard to capture at this kind of travel~

A Magpie flies as the sun rises and then we see them off and on all day long, always in a hurry~

A Bald Eagle hunts along a stream in South Dakota.  
I really thought the pink of sunrise left in the sky, showed it off well~

Not sure what these horses were running from, or to, but they sure were pretty~

 

Western R-T Hawk hunts high from a utility pole and we begin to see remnants of a 43" unseasonable snow fall, that came just days before our arrival.  
A Pronghorn Antelope taking it easy in the sunshine~

The images below show the tranquility that this land has most of the year, but then an early Winter storm can create monstrous disaster for the ranchers~

 

 

WARNING...TRAGEDY LOOMS HERE!

We  began witnessing such a tragedy that we had never seen before...ever.  
There were hundreds of dead cows along the Interstate.  
Some of them had crossed the fencing, the snow so deep, they stepped over without knowing.  
It was not traffic that took their lives though, it was the depth of the snow.  
We heard so many conversations, and each one was heart breaking.  
The ranchers just had no time, no way to get their herds into a safe area, before this storm came.
The only positive note was that while traveling in Montana, there was a man who came up with a plan that if those ranchers there who could, and would donate a heifer to a rancher who lost theirs in South Dakota, that would be of great help.
  25 % of the herds where this storm occurred, were lost.  
That is huge!
 The first image is of the Badlands from a distance, right about where the loss began.
I hope you can make it past the single image, to view the amazing sunrise we saw the day after...it gives one hope for a new day~

 I have photographed this old homestead in the past, but wanted to share again.  
I took lots of images of old structures on this journey~

Many of the highways and Interstates in South Dakota and Wyoming are pinkish and look pretty with the lay of the land~

In life, where this is tragedy, there are new dawns and new hopes, and these sunrise images were seen the morning after we came past the devastation from the snow storm~

Could Have Easily Been Deleted~

An update...it has been a very, very long week!
Thank you so very much for your very kind expressions made this week on my 
Wildbird Wednesday post. 
 
Our daughter Brittany, momma to our newest family addition of Maci, has been in the hospital since Sunday and there is no indication as to when she may get to go home.
Brittany continues to run a fever, even while being on 4 antibiotics.  She went into Pneumonia later in the week.  She has also developed Thrush, thanks to those antibiotics being used.  They are not able to wean her off of either of her 2 heavy duty pain medications yet, as her heart rate increases and blood pressure sky rockets if she goes too long beyond time needed to receive. Add to that, she has developed fluid around her lungs and heart and her heart is slightly enlarged, and so they need to get a Cardiologist team in to do an Echo-Cardiogram and of course...it is the weekend.  The team will send someone in to see Brittany today, but no test can be done until Monday. 
Dad...my precious father-in-law is also still in the hospital, but will be moved today, if not late yesterday to a nursing home, until he can rehab and then return home.  He suffered a brain hemorrhage Sunday morning, when he fell at church.
The images shared here, are simply some that I took from a very fast moving vehicle, as we made our way from Kentucky to New Mexico in late September.  I could have so easily deleted them, but had nothing new from my laptop computer...need to get some free time to get on desktop, where my program is.
I hope that everything is well in your world and that you have a very safe and satisfying weekend.  
I am missing so many of you and your entries, but I promise to catch up very soon! 
Mary
 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Final Series From Vacation Journey~

These last images are not so swell, yet they show a little more of the diversity of birds that we saw while on this past journey.  I must also say once again, these were all taken from the inside of the car, through the windscreen/windshield, and, or the side window, going at speeds from 60 to 75 mph.  Thus said, to have gotten anything is a good thing, I would expect~

Dark rufous morph Red-tailed Hawk~

Golden Eagles regularly sit along the Interstates...amazing~


2 Swainson's Hawks below~

Red-Tailed Hawk had just landed it's meal~

This Osprey crossed over our car and I captured this image just in the knick of time~



















I have no idea what this bird was, some kind of hawk, larger than most falcons~

















Another Golden Eagle~